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Art of the Americas to World War I
Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 2
Lesson 14: Aztec (Mexica)- Introduction to the Aztecs (Mexica)
- More on the Aztecs (Mexica)
- Coatlicue
- Coatlicue
- Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor
- Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan, the Coyolxauhqui Stone, and an Olmec Mask
- Codex Borgia
- Tlaloc vessel
- Serpent mask of Quetzalcoatl or Tlaloc
- The Sun Stone (The Calendar Stone)
- Coyolxauhqui Stone
- Monolith of Tlaltecuhtli (Earth Lord)
- Double-headed serpent
- The House of the Eagles, and sculptures of Mictlantecuhtli and Eagle Warrior
- Eagle Warrior (Mexica)
- Stone kneeling figure of Chalchiuhtlicue
- Mosaic mask of Tezcatlipoca
- Brazier of Chicomecoatl
- Sacrificial Knife with Mosaic Handle and Chalcedony Blade
- Aztec art and feasts for the dead
- Feathered headdress
- Aztec feathered headdress: backstory
- Remembering the Toxcatl Massacre: The Beginning of the End of Aztec Supremacy
- Painting Aztec History
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Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor
The Templo Mayor, a key Aztec temple, was destroyed and buried by the Spaniards during their conquest. Today, its remains reveal seven layers of construction, each by a different ruler. The temple was dedicated to two main Aztec deities, Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Despite its destruction, Mexico continues to discover and protect its cultural heritage.
Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor (Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Unearthing the Aztec past, the destruction of the Templo Mayor (Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
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- But human sacrifice was a holy and sacred practice, and it is slightly disturbing, but it was a sacred culture nonetheless and somebody's culture no matter how much you disagree with there customs, is not an excuse for pointless destruction.(5 votes)
- The Spaniards did not destruct the temple pointlessly or simply because they didn't 'like' it. Rather, they were in the process of the conquest and wanted to remove the culture that was previously in Mexico, while pushing their culture into the country at the same time . That's why, as mentioned in, the Spaniards re-used the stones that were once part of the temple in order to build their Cathedrals. They were trying to replace the culture of the country with theirs. 4:07(9 votes)
- How much is it appropriate to blame the 16th Century Spaniards for the destruction of the Aztec temples and sacred objects seeing as how they witnessed some of these objects used for human sacrifices?
It seems to me that human sacrifice is evil and it would be extremely disturbing and disgusting to watch happen. I would think that a strong bias against such activity and the implements used for such activity is entirely understandable.
It's a pity that these cultural artifacts were lost. But I'm not finding a lot of energy to condemn the Spaniards, given what they saw.(0 votes)- Have you information that the Spaniards actually saw human sacrifices happening at the temples in question? I am not doubting that it DID happen, but you assert that the Spanish invaders actually saw it (rather than "heard about" it). Nevertheless, it has been common among conquistadors of many ethnicities to destroy the monuments of those whom they conquered.(14 votes)
- i know i'm not the only one who would of wanted to see this before the destruction.(5 votes)
- Aren't you glad that someone drew pictures?(3 votes)
- dododododododododododododododododod(3 votes)
- I think that I want to go to Mexico soon!(4 votes)
- Are you asking about flight times, hotel reservations or places to see?(0 votes)
- What are the black dots on the Temple Mayor (Or whatever it is called).(0 votes)
- I just watched the whole thing, looking closely at all pictures of the ruins that have been exposed, and saw no "black dots". Were you referring to the model (rather white) of what the original "must have looked like?(3 votes)
- why did people destroy these architects(0 votes)
- 1) The political reason was to show the power of the colonizers over the colonized.
2) The religious reason was to show the power of the colonizers' god over those of the colonized.
3) The economic reason may well have been to use the materials of the destroyed monuments in the building of new structures.(2 votes)
- Who is "Tonatiuh"?(0 votes)
- In Mesoamerican culture, Tonatiuh (Nahuatl: Tōnatiuh [toːˈnatiʍ] "Movement of the Sun") was an Aztec sun deity of the daytime sky and ruled the cardinal direction of east. According to Aztec Mythology, Tonatiuh was known as "The Fifth Sun" and was given a calendar name of naui olin, which means "4 Movement".
It took me only a few seconds to learn that with a web search. The answer came from wikipedia.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(jazz music) - [Dr. Zucker] We're standing
in the middle of Mexico City in what was once the sacred
precinct of the Aztecs. And we're looking at the
ruins of the Templo Mayor, their main temple. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank] When you are on site at the Templo Mayor today,
it can be a bit disorienting, because the temple itself
is not complete anymore. It was destroyed and buried by the Spaniards with the conquest. And so what you see today are
the remains of this temple. - [Dr. Zucker] And we've just walked up this ramp that has taken us through layer after layer of
seven building campaigns. These were undertaken
by succeeding rulers. The previous temple would be
filled over with dirt and stone rubble and then encased in
a finished stone structure, a larger pyramid which would
be then surfaced with stucco and brightly painted,
and then decorated with an enormous number of sculptural forms. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank]
We get a good sense of how the Templo Mayor would have looked to the Spanish when they
arrived here in 1519. The Templo Mayor was a twin temple, devoted to the Aztecs two main deities. Huitzilopochtli, the god
of war and a sun god. And the god Tlaloc, who was a
rain and agricultural deity. And so the Templo Mayor
was part of this larger sacred precinct that included
a variety of buildings, including temples to
other important deities, like the feathered serpent
deity Quetzalcoatl, or to the Sun disk, Tonatiuh. So when Hernán Cortés,
the Spanish conquistador arrived here in 1519, he
and many of the men with him were incredibly impressed
with what they were seeing. They were overwhelmed with the beauty of Tenochtitlan, or the Aztec capital city. One of the soldiers with Cortés
wrote about his experiences. He says this, "we saw so many
cities and villages built in the water, and other great
towns on dry land and that straight and level causeway
going towards Mexico, we were amazed, on account of
the great towers and temples and buildings rising from the water. And all built of masonry, and
some of our soldiers asked whether the things that
we saw were not a dream." - [Dr. Zucker] So let's describe for just a moment what the Spanish must have seen when they first arrived. They saw a huge double
staircase that rose steeply up, and then at the top a large platform, with twin temples on the top. In order to get to the temples,
you would have passed by on the right a stone
altar, and on the left, a sculptural figure that showed
an individual on his back with a bowl over his belly. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank] And this
is what's called chacmool, and both this individual
and the sacrificial stone that you would have
passed were likely used during many of the ritual ceremonies that took place during
the monthly festivals. Unfortunately today, much of what was once the sacred precinct is underneath
modern day Mexico City. Underneath buildings
that are still standing. - [Dr. Zucker] Such as the
cathedral of the City of Mexico. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank] And the
Plaza Mayor or the Zócalo. All of these would have been
part of the sacred precinct, or the area just
immediately surrounding it. - [Dr. Zucker] We've
gone inside to look at reconstructions of the Templo Mayor. The temple was intentionally destroyed. It wasn't transformed the
way that for instance, a catholic church might be transformed into a protestant church. This is the actual destruction
of the most sacred temple, in the most sacred part of the
capital city of the Aztecs. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank]
Even though we have all these accounts written by Spaniards, who were commenting how
beautiful and amazing it was, they still raized much of the city, in particular the sacred precinct. And what we do find then is
the building on top of many of these structures using the stones that had been part of these Aztec buildings. - [Dr. Zucker] And the
violence wasn't just perpetrated on the
people and the buildings of Tenochtitlan, but
other kinds of symbols. For instance sculptures
were intentionally toppled, or buried. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank]
And you have sculptures that are then recarved into columns. You have sculptures made by the Spaniards, for Christian purposes that were clearly once Aztec sacred objects. So objects like Cuauhxicalli,
receptacles for blood or various implements for
sacrifice were sometimes transformed into baptismal fonts. And if we look at the
Metropolitan Cathedral, the main cathedral in the
Zócalo in Mexico City, we know that some of the
stones from the Templo Mayor were reused in its initial construction. - [Dr. Zucker] So this
is a physical expression of the spiritual and political conquest. This needs to be understood within a broader context of the reconquest. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank] The Reconquista, the reconquest in Spain,
is when we're talking about Spaniards who are trying to reconquer the Iberian peninsula from Muslims. Who had taken over much of the peninsula in the eighth century. So the reconquest ends in 1492, shortly before their
coming to the Americas and coming into contact
with people like the Aztecs. You can see for instance
the Great Mosque of Cordoba, with a Christian church
built into the center of the building as this sign of both political and spiritual conquest. - [Dr. Zucker] But in that case, they left the great
majority of the mosque, and simply built a church in the center. Here, we have almost a complete destruction of the sacred precinct. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank] If
you go to Mexico City today, you can see ongoing excavations of parts of what had been the sacred precinct. Mexico is very protective
of its cultural heritage. You have organizations like INAH, who are responsible for these excavations and the protection of
these important sites. And so, say a building
is going to be taken down and something new built on top of it, or if they are constructing subway lines, INAH has the responsibility
to send in archeologists to see if there is anything
there that is part of this Meso-American cultural heritage. - [Dr. Zucker] And new things are being discovered regularly, this awareness of the value of Mexico's cultural history goes back even to the colonial period. Where you have an increasing
recognition of what was lost. - [Dr. Kilroy-Ewbank]
During the colonial period you have Spaniards born in the Americas known as Americanos or Criollos, Creoles. And as we're progressing
throughout the colonial period, they're becoming increasingly interested in the Meso-American past as
a way to separate themselves from Spaniards on the Iberian peninsula. - [Dr. Zucker] And then in
the post-colonial period, after Mexico wins independence,
we see this interest most visibly in the 1920s, in the 1930s, in the great mural paintings
of artists like Diego Rivera. So modern Mexico City
is a complex layering of modern and pre-colonial history. Imagine what we'll find in the future. (jazz music)